Labour Geographies of the Agrarian Transition: Addressing Sustainability Challenges of Thai Agriculture

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Oliver Pye
• Subject Area: Asian Studies ; Human Geography
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 538775313

Labour Geographies of the Agrarian Transition: Addressing Sustainability Challenges of Thai Agriculture. This project takes a Labour Geography perspective to examine the new social-ecological landscapes that characterise the four commodity crops Coffee, Maize, Palm Oil and Sugar in Thailand. Our hypothesis is that as these crops are increasingly produced by (migrant and highly gendered) wage labour, this has implications for the social and environmental sustainability of agriculture. We want to explore how the organisation of the labour process is linked to social and environmental sustainability via the perspective, experience and knowledge of agricultural workers in each industry. We posit that the environmental challenges that characterise the modern agricultural sector are intimately entwined with social ones. By understanding the lives and perspectives of agricultural (migrant) workers producing these commodities, we will generate knowledge that will be useful for solving key ecological and social sustainability issues in Thai agriculture. Beyond Thailand, the project will fill gaps in the theoretical understanding of the relation between labour, environment, and development. The cooperation between German and Thai researchers brings together a unique combination of experience, skills, methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives. The Thai researchers contribute decades of experience of the anthropology of agrarian change in Thailand; an intimate knowledge of the selected research areas; an innovative transdisciplinary research methodology (“Thai Baan Research”) and perspectives grounded in feminist and migration theories. The German researchers bring a cutting-edge knowledge of Labour Geography and Political Ecology, years of experience of working with plantation workers, and a theoretical grounding in theories of nature-society relations to the table. The project will combine these perspectives to develop an innovative methodology that contributes to the growing body of transdisciplinary sustainability research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Thailand
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Michael Kleinod-Freudenberg
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Nattakant Akarapongpisak; Nantawat Chatuthai; Dr. Patcharin Lapanun; Dr. Busarin Lertchavalitsakul; Monchai Phongsiri; Dr. Malee Sittikreangkrai; Professor Dr. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti